A/N: I don't own anything you recognise and check previous chapters for the disclaimer.

When they got home, there was a sense that the discussion would be continued there and then, so instead of going straight to her bed, where Erin wanted to go, she sat straight on the couch, and began to play with her hair, wanting to get out of this as soon as physically possible. Her warm chocolate locks were immaculately braided into a loose side French braid before her mother sat next to her. "So, Henry has his stuff back again…" Erin said awkwardly, needing to get the conversation rolling.

"Yeah, he does." Emma nodded, looking at her daughter, as if she was trying to read her emotions and thoughts.

"And Spencer's locked away?" Erin continued to ask, noticing Neal purposely walk out of the room.

Emma nodded once again, rolling her eyes as she saw Neal leave. "Yes, he's locked away Erin." She promised, racking her brain over the previous conversation that morning, and picking up the box from the table. "How did you know it wasn't in the bin?"

"I told you, I looked the other day, and it was there. How was I supposed to know it was empty?" Erin lied.

"Erin…Sup-" Emma started, before Erin cut her off completely.

"Mom! It's not a fucking superpower. You read people, I'm not lying and I didn't know. Stop insinuating something has to be wrong with me, or that I know something which I clearly don't." Erin ranted, fighting the urge to run off and hide in her bedroom for the rest of her life, if it was humanly possible.

"Erin, I wasn't insinuating anything…" Emma sighed, and tried to stroke Erin's hair, she wanted answers.

"Yes you were." Erin interrupted, turning her face away from her mother, generally she wouldn't have dared to act like this, but today was different. "Why were you poking around in the cupboard in the first place?" She challenged, hoping to veer off course.

"I'm not telling. What else is kept in there?" Emma asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Ew. No. Lalalalala. I don't want to hear about your sex life with Dad." She yelled.

Emma laughed softly. "I just want you to talk to me."

"Then don't tell me about your sex life!" Her daughter replied, gulping. "Like I said before, guess."

"No, I want you to tell me." Emma sighed, she had a pretty good idea, but she wanted her daughter to actually tell her. She realised that if she kept pressing her, she would get what she wanted eventually.

"What do you want to hear Mom? That school's really hard? That I'm dealing with everything the best that I can?" Erin snapped, still firmly trying to hold onto the little ground that she had left.

Emma sighed, and her voice softened slightly. "What were you, Nicole and Jade talking about at Henry's?" She asked quietly. "I'm concerned about you…"

"What does it matter Mom? I'm fine." Erin shrugged and sighed.

"Jade was sitting on Nicole…" Emma stated, raising her eyebrows gently.

"Yeah, that's a usual occurrence. You're not there at school Mom." Erin shrugged, trying to keep her excuses going.

"Maybe I am, how would you know?" Erin raised her eyebrows at her mother's statement.

"Because I just do, and you would know a lot more than you actually do." Erin cheeked, laying back into the couch.

Emma could see that the conversation wasn't going where she wanted it to, in an ideal world, Erin would've already told her after she'd asked. Well if we're discussing an ideal world, then the discussion would've never taken place, and no one would've broken into Henry's house. Not to mention the fact that Erin wouldn't be in a similar position as her mother had been in twenty six years previously. However, considering how life had been then, and compared to now, everything was considerably calmer, and less complicated, (except for the family tree, which had only grown in those past twenty six years.)

There was a slight awkward silence between the two women. Nothing moved, it was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop on carpet, wrapped in padding for a softer landing. A sudden crash was heard, followed by a distant yell of "I got it!" From Neal in the kitchen.

Erin held her laughter by pursing her lips. "I'm not saying." She shrugged.

Emma raised her eyebrows, still facing the doorway into the kitchen. She was trying to find another approach to make her daughter crack and tell her the truth. "Fine… I'll just tell Henry that it was nothing." She shrugged vaguely. It's not as if she liked to lie, but she felt it was necessary in this instance.

Erin's eyes widened slightly. "Don't tell Henry anything." She said, before even thinking about what her mother had even said to her.

"Ha it is something then, because you tell him everything." Emma tried not to smile triumphantly.

"Mom…" Erin complained, burying her face in a pillow as she groaned.

Emma didn't say anything for a moment, stroking her daughters hair as the silence was heard. "Tell me, and I can fix it."

"It's not just something you fix Mom." Erin stated, moving the pillow away from her face. "Can I grab something to eat?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"Not until we're done here." Emma said.

Erin groaned once more, and looked at her mother. "What do you want me to say? I'm failing school? I'm stressed all the time? I have a boyfriend? I have relationship issues? I'm a pregnant sixteen year old? Life is hard? I'm not a character in a story, unlike every one of my relatives! I'm not in the book, neither is Henry." She snapped, without bothering to think her answer through before it left her lips.

Emma looked at her daughter scandalized. Her mouth was moving, yet no sound emerged from her vocal cords. After a fair few moments, all that came out were incoherent sounds or pieces of words that made no sense to anyone. "Fa? Essed? Tion? Frie? Pre?" She managed to choke out.

Erin looked desperately for an excuse or something to tell her how to get out of this, as she looked at her mother with wide eyes. "No. No, I asked you what you wanted to hear, and I gave you examples." She weakly lied. She hated to admit that all of what she had said was true.

Emma continued to look at her daughter flabbergasted. "You can't lie." She mumbled. "Erin…"

"Look I'm fine, I'll leave. I know, it doesn't reach your expectations, I'll go to Granny's and wait there and then I'll go to Boston or New York." Erin said quietly, standing up. Her french braid was all messed up now and the colour had disappeared from her face completely.

"Erin…wait." Emma said quietly, but the effect of her words stopped her daughter in her tracks.

Erin swayed on her feet. "Why?" She asked weakly. She honestly looked as if she were about to collapse.

Emma moved her back to the couch gently. "We're not done talking about this."

A/N: Sorry this took so long, but how about that episode? Wow! I called Zelena being Regina's sister, but hey. Your reviews mean everything to me and I thank you for all of your support. Let me know what you think, good or bad in the reviews or favourites or follows or even a PM if you prefer.